Hey Fam!
So if you follow me on socials, I told you all about the creative writing class I took over the fall. It was… a mess! But that’s a story for another day. For now, I can say I appreciated the challenge of writing using literary tools and genre’s as a guide. Often times, if there is no deadline to adhere too, I won’t get it done so that fact that I even did the assignments is epic! For the whopping cost of a community college three credit class, I produced some short stories that I think are pretty damn good! I’ll be posting them all here for you over the next two weeks.
Enjoy!

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Who That, Baby?
by Paula Gillison Akinwole

This assignment was a challenge to write a dialogue heavy story in which one character has to explain a mystery. The original requirement was less than 50 words of non-dialogue but this edit has ignored that rule! 😜

“You are home early,” DeciAnne practically shouted, startling Marlissa as she entered their apartment. Her key was barely in the door when she heard stumbling from the other side. When she entered, DeciAnne stopped what she was doing, tucked her hands behind her back, and smiled awkwardly at her wife. 

“Early?” Marlissa checked her watch while also studying DeciAnne’s face that was obviously hiding something. “Naw, it’s the same time I always get home on Thursday to watch my show, Real Housewives of Potomac. But uh… are you good, bae?”

Marlissa walked towards her wife who backing away slowly. DeciAnne kept her hands behind her back and attempted to suppress the grin on her face behind furrowed brows and pressed lips.But Marlissa knew her wife all too well.

“What’s behind your back?” 

“Huh?” DeciAnne ignored her while moving towards the front of the couch.

“You heard me, weirdo. What are you doing?”

She dropped the act, unfurled her brows and relaxed into a huge smile. Finally revealing what she was holding, she held up a dirty diaper. Marlissa looked at it and then down at the couch where her wife’s eyes kept darting too. There, wrapped in a plaid shirt, lay a small white baby.

“The fuck is that?” 

“A… bay… bee…” DeciAnne responded cheekily. 

“I know what it is, woman. Why is a BAY BEE in our house? And why is it wearing my shit?”

“Because it needed a shirt to wear!” 

“You’re trying to be cute, Deci but I’m gonna need an explanation right now. Preferably one that is more detailed, please!”

“Okay. You remember my client, Condola?

“Cee Cee?”

“Yes, Cee Cee. She does hate it when I call her Condola.”

“Yes, respect your clients bae.”

“Right, respect! Well Cee cee had her baby….”

“Is this Cee Cee’s baby, Deci?”

“It is!”

“Oh okay cool. Why you being weird? Cee cee is here! Where she at? ”

“No.”

“No?”

“Cee Cee is not here.”

“Okay Deci, Cee Cee baby is here but Cee Cee is not. So where is Cee Cee?”

“…. in jail!”

“Cee Cee is in jail?”

“Yes!”

“You’re being too brief again, Deci!”

“Cause you’re asking brief questions, Lissa!”

Marlissa grunted. DeciAnne infuriated her but she found her wife’s simpering endearing. 

“Okay Deci, please tell me the whole story of why Cee Cee is in jail but Cee Cee’s baby is here!”

“Fine.” DeciAnne huffed. She picked up the baby and held her over her shoulder. “Cee Cee had the baby last month, I told you that. Remember?”

“I remember.”

“Well, she was supposed to call us to tell us when she got discharged but she didn’t. Of course she didn’t. She’s such a stubborn client. Two years I’ve been working with her and I can never get her to keep an appointment or show up on time or just do anything on her weekly task list. You know, I think if I get gray hair, it’s gonna be because of this girl. Just last monthI told her to send in her renewal papers for food stamps and guess what she did? She didn’t send it in, I tell ya that!”

“Deci? You’re rambling!”

“Right. Sorry! Where was I?”

“She didn’t call from the hospital….”

“Right! She was supposed to call from the hospital but didn’t. So literally no one knew where she was cause apparently she checked herself out. I was afraid she had gone back to her no count boyfriend but we checked and he said he ain’t seen her since before the baby was born. He didn’t even know the baby was born. But then I got a call from JoAnne who got a call from Mark who got a call from Walmart that Cee Cee had been caught shoplifting.”

“Damn!”

“Right? So I rush over to Walmart but the paddywagon was pulling up as I arrived. So now Cee Cee is gone … again!”

“And that’s how you ended up with the baby? Walmart had it?”

“Nope!”

“No, Deci? So… skip to the part where the baby is on our couch.”

“Walmart said she didn’t have a baby with her. So I panicked. I went back to her house, her mom’s house, the hospitals and everywhere I could think of looking for the baby but I didn’t find it anywhere.”

“So how did you end up with the baby, Deci?”

“I’m trying to tell you! When I got home, she was on our porch with a note.”

“A note? What did it say?”

“Here,” DeciAnne pulls out a folded up piece of paper from her back pocket. On one side, there was some medical information about Cee Cee and the baby. On the other, there was a note in ink scribbled largely across the page. You said anything D.

“So she left the baby here?”

“I mean, I did say if she needed anything, just holla at me.”

“I was afraid you kidnapped her, Deci! Really! I was afraid that’s where this was going!”

“Me? Kidnap a baby? I mean, if I had too but not this time! Plus, didn’t you say you wanted to be a mom someday?”

“I literally said that this morning!”

Marlissa reached for the baby from DeciAnne who gently placed her in her arms. The little girl rolled and coo-ed before snuggling in. Marlissa grabbed the remote and turned the T.V to Bravo.

“Well lil girl, you ever seen Real Housewives of Potomac?”

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